I just WISH that Saban would retire, but the word on the street in TTown is that THAT isn’t happening. The man is a workaholic AND a competitor . He lives to Coach. Some here expect that he’ll Coach till he’s 80, so long as his health holds up.
Purely technical for me. I'm rooting for both 1-loss teams as I've never understood the mindset that a team that plays in a different conference with a completely different schedule and goes undefeated is necessarily better than a team that plays a tougher schedule and has one loss along the way. The 1-loss teams winning (at minimum) chips away at the idea that they are necessarily weaker opponents (I believe Texas' schedule was the toughest of the teams in consideration). The future of the SEC is going to be about having a significantly stronger schedule than those not in the SEC. It would be a major fail if that was not recognized in the best regard by future playoff committees. In theory, if we're ever good again, we want to make sure we get credit where it is due for having a harder path to a pretty record. Slight preference for Texas over Alabama as it might make them fat and happy for next season when we have to play them. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
But that would be what the Tide faithful would say, because it’s what they want. It might even be true. But it sounds a lot like, “Spurrier would never leave us for the NFL. He bleeds orange and blue.”
After the USF game Finnebaum was developing his eulogy for Saban, suggesting, rather emphaticly that "it was probably over".
If they had a Tua, they’d probably be dropping 40 on everyone. He’s still recruiting and they just beat Georgia. That’s as strong as you can really be as a program. His days are numbered for sure but decline hasn’t happened just yet.
I don’t consider Bama a rival of ours… even though I’m no fan of theirs. I aspire to be their rival, as right now they likely see us how we see Vandy. I bet we’re more scared of Vandy then they are of us.
I'll admit after Bama beat UGA I thought cool neither of them are in (figured the darling Noles were in). Didn't bother me much as I figured the Noles will get crushed by a real team without Travis, and that loss and their crying would be great. The turn by the committee has made it oh so much fun now! Looking at the resumes is clear Bama's was much better and they deserved it. The Clown school meltdown has been gold. Funny all those pushes they got over the years playing mostly garbage schools and they just ignore.
We simply perceive the same set of facts differently. They are not the dominating force they were 10 years ago. This is no longer a unipolar league. They bleed just like everyone else now. And unlike 10 years ago, everyone is allowed to buy athletes now. The Portal also keeps them from a couple of their other techniques that keep talent from fleeing, such as putting more players on “hardship” scholarship (i.e. You’re “injured” but we don’t want you playing for anyone else) than the rest of the SEC combined. Saban might be a great coach, but there’s no doubt he has mostly benefited from being able to acquire and retain superior talent through — let’s call it what it is — severe bending, at best, breaking, at worst, a lot of rules. If he was such a pure master of Xs and Os, then he would have succeeded in the NFL, where building up an overwhelming talent advantage is not really possible.
